How data makes things worse
All light brings shade. My list of ‘changes that have been all upside and no downside’ is short and debatable.
Leadership training and support for organisational development: an offer from the Strategy Unit
The Strategy Unit has long been known for the quality of its analytical work, and the clear, critical thi
How is growth in diagnostic testing affecting the hospital system?
Diagnostic services, such as medical imaging, endoscopy, and pathology, have grown substantially in recent years and at a faster rate than most other healthcare services. Increased diagnostic testing brings benefits to patients, but rapid growth of this service area within a complex, adaptive system such as the NHS is likely to have had unintended consequences. Midlands ICBs wanted to understand the impact of diagnostic growth on hospital services.
Decision Making Blog #8: Infinity-shaped debate
I’m argumentative.
Decision Making Blog #7: Should we 'go with the gut'? Yes, but...
I’m not sure there’s a superlative strong enough to describe ‘T
Decision Making Blog #6: The most powerful question in decision making?
I’m a fan of Shane Parrish and his organisation Farnam Street (strapline: ‘Helping you master the best of
Decision Making Blog #5: Reaching disagreement
Two starting points:
Decision Making Blog #4: Embrace uncertainty - it's a badge of honour
Imagine this:
Decision Making Blog #3: The black hole of the status quo
Learning is one of the joys of teaching. And I’ve learnt a lot while helping people develop their decision making skills.
Decision Making Blog #2: Two under-appreciated sources of leadership power
Some forms of leaders’ power are obvious. Leaders hire and they fire.
Decision Making Blog #1: Better decision making: a neglected route to improvement?
There are two main routes for health and care services to improve the health of the populations they serve. The
Urgent Community Response – What Works?
The Strategy Unit, with our partners Ipsos, has been commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) to provide a long-term national evaluation of the Urgent Community Response programme rolled-out across England. The programme aims to shift resources to home and community-based services as part of the NHS commitment to providing the right care, to the right people, at the right time. And there are a range of outputs from the early work that provide learning for local systems as they develop their services.
Advancing the analytical capability of the NHS and its ICS partners
The Strategy Unit were asked by the Strategy and Development Team in the Directorate of the Chief Data and Analytics Officer, NHSE/I, to make recommendations for advancing analytical capability across the health and care workforce.
Less noise and more light: using criteria-driven analysis to tackle inequalities
Reducing health inequality is a long-standing aim of health policy. Yet the gap between policy aim and population outcome has grown in recent years: on most measures health inequalities have got worse.
Making sense of evidence
It's time to celebrate World Evidence-Based Healthcare (EBHC) Day. In a world dominated by COVID-19 and the associated infodemic, this day arguably has more resonance. Closer to home, EBHC Day also coincides with our Insight 2020 festival and the launch of the Midlands Decision Support network. What better opportunity to ask, 'what does evidence-informed decision making actually mean'?
Insight 2020 - Week 6: Making the most of our decision-making resources
The final week’s theme was a reflection on what had been heard in the previous weeks.We thoug
Insight 2020 - Week 5: The decision-making toolkit
Decision-making is an art; we can train at it, rehearse and access tools to support us.
Insight 2020 - Week 4: Exploring Health Inequalities
COVID-19 has shone a light on health inequalities; it has “laid bare our longstanding social, economic and political inequalities…” (BMJ,